businessinfomag.uk
magazine
28
Trevor Davis explains the benefits of implementing a call accounting
or call logging solution
A call accounting (or call logging)
system is a hardware or software
application that captures, records and
prices telephone usage. Frequently
implemented as a cost optimisation
application, call accounting has
multiple benefits for organisations of
all sizes. These include:
n
The insight it gives into telephone
usage and expenditure can help define
and drive a new business strategy. For
example, call accounting is frequently
used to cost-justify migration from TDM
to voice over IP (VoIP).
n
If a business is operating a unified
communications platform, like Skype
for Business, call accounting can help it
keep tabs on communications in their
entirety, measuring everything from
audio and video conferencing to instant
messaging, file transfers and peer-to-
peer calls. This is a great way to identify
trends that may have a significant cost
impact on the business and require
contingency plans to be drawn up.
n
The best call accounting systems
enable specific functionality to be
developed to optimise reporting for a
particular type of environment, whether
that be traditional audio or PSTN
data, Skype for Business solutions or
more general unified communications
technology. Alternatively, a business
might want to look more closely at the
network, focusing on areas like quality
of service, packet loss, latency jitter and
overall network performance to ensure
optimal efficiency for voice.
Call accounting delivers benefits
to all parts of the organisation, from
the contact centre and customer-
facing business units to back office
administrators. That said, there are
clearly functional areas of any business
to which call accounting software is
especially relevant.
Cost Optimisation
The primary benefit of call accounting,
and the area where businesses typically
see the fastest return on investment, is
the ability to optimise costs, starting
with an analysis of call costs across the
organisation. The most functionally rich
systems support multiple carrier tariff
rates within the application. For example,
our call accounting system, Proteus,
allows businesses with multiple service
providers to load up rate plans for each
one and run cost comparisons to ensure
they are on the right plan for their type
of usage.
Also important for the purposes
of cost management is the ability to
identify assets that are being under-
utilised (or not being used at all), which
could be shared across different areas of
the business.
A third key aspect of cost
optimisation is the way costs are applied
within a business, specifically the ability
to break a bill down by department
or even by employee. Cost reporting
within a call accounting application can
allocate costs across departments, cost
centres, account codes etc., enabling
an organisation to allocate costs and
account for them appropriately. This is
generally done on a scheduled basis.
The final cost area that call
accounting systems assist with is service
billing and the ability to produce monthly
billing reports for individual clients. A
legal firm that charges clients for time
and materials used would typically
assign an individual account code to
every client. This would be used to
collate all calls relating to that client, and
associated costs (including mark-ups).
Complete control
Network Optimisation
The role that call accounting systems can
play in optimising the network is perhaps
most relevant to medium and large
enterprises with sophisticated telephony
infrastructures incorporating multiple
sites, multiple PBXs and large volumes
of SIP or ISDN trunks that terminate in
different buildings.
Leading edge call accounting systems
can help organisations with network
optimisation by enabling them to assess
average peak utilisation across the
network and to ensure that least cost
routing is used to route calls across the
internal network before breaking out
onto the PSTN network.
Call accounting can also help with
capacity planning. The best systems
can see how capacity is trending on the
network and are very good at predicting
when a business is likely to reach
capacity, managing growth accordingly.
Alternatively, they can project a likely
decline over time, which might help the
business identify where it can reduce
the number of assets and achieve cost
savings as a result.
Security and Compliance
A call accounting system can monitor
telephone interactions for unexpected
activity, such as out-of-hours breakout
calls, which could indicate some sort
of toll fraud (a method of obtaining
unlawful access to business phone
systems to make money). Toll fraud is
rife in the UK, yet is something most
businesses don’t truly understand or
defend against.
If something unusual happens a
business would need to be notified
immediately. Our Proteus call accounting
system has a real time monitor, which
can be configured for when the office
is closed down – over the Christmas
holidays, for example, which ensures that
if there are any out of hours outbound
calls over a certain amount, the
management team is notified by email
or SNMP.
Call accounting systems can also be
used to detect internal fraud, including
unnecessary use of long distance or
toll-based services by someone inside
the organisation, such as an employee
Trevor Davis,
Head of Product
Management and
Call Accounting,
Enghouse
Interactive
Telephony
